With his lean frame and toothy smile Ankit Lal, 30, appears the quintessential boy next door. Except that he isn't. Clad in faded jeans and floaters, the social media head of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is busy plotting the national social media strategy with his seven-member team and inputs from some 2,000 volunteers and many supporters. Lal's office in a narrow alley off Connaught Place is small and spartan with two tables, a few plastic chairs, no fans and floors with broken tiles. It reminds you of a dilapidated classroom in a government school. But what he is attempting is no child's play. "Social media is a very important communication tool that helps us draw fence-sitters into our fold," Lal says.

Not too far away on Delhi's Ashoka Road, Arvind Gupta, 44, is ensconced in the expansive BJP headquarters where, over the past year temporary tinroofed offices have been built in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. Educated in the US in analytics, Gupta worked in the corporate sector and was an entrepreneur before joining BJP in 2010. Gupta, head of BJP's IT cell, sits in a building to which entry is restricted to I-card holders.

"With technology and social media, we have been able to create an alternative medium with which we can directly communicate with the citizens. This is very important in this election," says Gupta sitting in a large conference room. His IT cell, which includes the social media team, has 25-odd members and 1.2 million volunteers and supporters across the country.

Gupta and Lal represent two ends of a social media war that is playing out this election season. Their two very different worlds are colliding in the virtual space as India gears up for the 16th general election this summer. "This is the first social media election in the country. India is where the US was in 2008," says Ankhi Das, public policy director, Facebook India.

While BJP — led by prime minister aspirant Narendra Modi who ordered all BJP leaders to get onto social media — and AAP lead the charge, parties across the spectrum from Congress and Trinamool to CPI and JD (U) are wading in. The battle is no-hold-barred, often vicious and packed with intrigue, particularly on Twitter where 140 characters are adequate to inspire the wittiest, sharpest and nastiest barbs.

Often Anti-social

On April Fools' Day, three hashtags were trending on Twitter: #Pappudiwas (attacking Rahul), #Kejriwaldiwas (attacking Kejriwal) and #Modiyapa (atOn April Fools' Day, three hashtags were trending on Twitter: #Pappudiwas (attacking Rahul), #Kejriwaldiwas (attacking Kejriwal) and #Modiyapa (attacking Modi). Political watchers active on social media are familiar with Pappupedia, a Wikipedia of sorts on Rahul Gandhi that aggregates information to mock him. And there is Fekuexpress that makes fun of Modi. Taking a dig at Modi's tagline, "Abki baar Modi sarkar", his opponents have viralized "Abki baar Mukesh sarkar", linking him to Mukesh Ambani. Kejriwal isn't spared, either — from spoofs and sting videos on YouTube to jokes and memes on WhatsApp and Facebook.

If social media was the electoral battlefield, how would political parties and their leaders stack up? Let's first look at the battle purely through the numbers. On Facebook, BJP (the main official party account) leads with 3.4 million fans as against Congress' 2.5 million and AAP's 1.8 million. But on Twitter AAP is the surprising leader with 5.17 million followers as against BJP at 417,000 and the Congress lagging at 163,000 lakh.

What explains a newbie AAP beating BJP here? One, remember that among Twitter followers there are many trolls, says Sameer Narkar, founder director of Prudence Analytics and Software, a social media analytics firm. Two, AAP was the result of a social movement led by digitally savvy Indians and it got a head start with a big base. And three, BJP's campaign thrust — online and offline — has been so concentrated through its PM candidate that everything else has been subsumed under the Modi umbrella.

It is a different picture when one compares the top leaders. The direct battle is between Kejriwal and Modi as Congress' Rahul Gandhi is not present either on Facebook or Twitter. Modi today is the world's second most popular leader on Facebook with 12 million fans. Kejriwal is the world's fifth most popular leader with 4.9 million Facebook fans. The pecking order repeats in the Twitter world with Modi having 3.6 million followers as against Kejriwal's 1.6 million.